Our View

Our View

Is push for seat-belts on buses the right move?

While we can certainly understand Rep. Mark McElroy’s push for school districts, including those in Crittenden County, to buy new buses equipped with seat belts is simply a knee-jerk reaction this is certainly not as simply as it might sound.

So seems the recent deaths of six school children in a bus crash in Chattanooga, Tenn., have restarted a nationwide debate on the lack of seat belts in school buses.

This decades-old debate has a number of factors that need to be carefully taken into account. Let’s begin by pointing out the cost of a new school bus increases by as much as $10,000 to include seat belts on every seat.

Clearly school districts, including those here, simply don’t have the money in their budgets to pay that price which leads us to how McElroy intends to push his proposed bill through the upcoming legislative session. So, instead of offering a state grant, McElroy’s proposal would require school districts to study the cost on new bus purchases if more than 10 percent of the voters in the district file a petition seeking the requirement and willing to pay MORE TAXES!!

Once the cost has been determined the school district then must place a millage tax on every property owner to cover the costs. That tax would come about only after voters gave their stamp of approval during the next regularly scheduled election.

McElroy calls this approach as a “local control-type bill.”

Let’s get beyond the additional tax issue and point out some of the other problems we have with McElroy’s noteworthy effort. For instance, let’s ask McElroy how bus drivers would enforce the seat belt rule. Besides the driver being responsible for operating the bus he, or she, will now be forced to make sure every student is restrained, a task that will be almost impossible?

Then, let’s bring up the liability issue and can school districts or even the bus drivers be sued if children are injured while not wearing the restraints?

If by some stretch of the imagination voters go along with McElroy’s intentions and agree to tax themselves to pay for these more expensive buses Arkansas wouldn’t be the only state with such a requirement. In fact, six states have laws to require that seat belts be installed in school buses, but let us point out, some of those states, such as Louisiana, have not approved funding to implement the rule.

The point also needs to be made is that fatal rollover crashes are rare, according to the Federal Highway Safety Agency. And, the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration most recently reviewed its school bus safety rules in 2011, when it declined a petition to require seat belts after estimating nationwide installation in larger buses would cut annual school-bus crash fatalities from five to three.

The administration also pointed out the cost of installing seat belts would limit districts’ ability to provide bus transportation, potentially causing an increase of between 10 and 19 annual fatalities among children forced to take other, less safe, ways to school.

Again, let us say that McElroy’s intentions are good but, by the same token, there are number of issues that need to be taken into consideration before lawmakers jump on board.